


Letters

by welseykels



Series: Dragon Age: Mira Amell [12]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Also why did I decide on three years apart - I am cruel to myself and Mira and Alistair - wow, F/M, Mira and Morrigan's friendship fuels me okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-03-07
Packaged: 2018-09-30 04:48:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10154003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/welseykels/pseuds/welseykels
Summary: It's been three years since Warden-Commander Mira Amell left for her search to find a cure for the Calling, when the Inquisitor's scouts find her with a message.A two part writing of the letters exchanged between Mira and Alistair during this time.





	1. Mira's Letter

**Author's Note:**

> [Check out my writing masterpage on tumblr!](https://welseykels.tumblr.com/writing)

She wasn’t surprised that Leliana’s scouts were able to track her down, knows that the only easy way they could have is if Alistair gave her the name she’d been travelling under as a means to track her if contact needed to be made.  She knew Alistair would respect her wishes to not follow, not until the threat against the wardens and the breach had been taken care of.  Then they would be together, forever this time.  

And if worse came to worse and times were desperate, Alistair knew where she had hidden her phylactery, the only living soul beyond her brother and herself who knew where it was. Not even her uncle, who had secreted her’s and Gavin’s away from the circle before the vials were taken away to Denerim, knew.  But she was thankful it had not come to that when it was a scout and not her husband that crested the edge of the mountain.

The scout had been polite, if not a little shocked to have actually found her, that they hadn’t been chasing a ghost.  Bruno had stood guard while she read and wrote her reply to the Inquisitor’s letter, a growl slipping out in warning when the scout would get too close.  The past three years had put the old hound on edge, just as it has done to her.

She wrapped a small gift for the Inquisitions trouble in finding her, unable to help them in other ways.  She also wrote another note, one that was spotted with tears near the end and sealed with a kiss.

She watched with Bruno at her side as the scout disappeared over the hills, knowing her words are on their way to the love of her life, a poor substitute for herself there with him.

She clings to the morning she left like a life raft, the two of them under names not their own at the Spoiled Princess Inn, the old place having held so many precious memories for them both.

_“Do you really have to go?” His hands wound their way around her hip, keeping her in place beside him in the bed as she sat up._

_She gave him a look, knowing full well he knew the answer.  “You know I have to.”_

_“I know.”  It was something he’d repeated over and over whenever she brought it up over the past weeks.  Understanding, but still, it was the last thing either of them wanted to do. “I wish I could come with you, Mira.”_

_Her fingers moved to caress his cheek.  “Me too.  But one of us needs to be here, we’ve discussed this.  Someone needs to see what threat this Corypheus poses to us. You know I’d stay, but what Morrigan -”_

_“That raven.”_

_She wrinkled her nose. “What Morrigan - I know it was her Alistair - has given us… we can’t wait.  If this is true, I have to go now.”_

_He frowned, the sadness edging it’s way into his voice, mixing in with the defeat.  “I know.”  But then he grinned.  “Now, now?  Or do I have time to do this to my lovely wife?” And then she was pulled back onto the bed, to giggles and kisses and her husband’s arms._

* * *

 

It’s Leliana who brings him a sealed bundle of parchment late in the night, after the Inquisitor and her war council have retired.  She doesn’t linger, knows he’ll want privacy to read the words from the Hero of Ferelden, from his wife.

It’s been over a year since he’d last heard from her, the letter given to him by Gavin and Vanna when they’d helped him out of Weisshaupt when things had turned sour with the leaders of the Warden Order.

He can’t open the letter fast enough.

_My love,_

_I am so close to the cure we need, my love, I can feel it.  These three years have seemed like an eternity, being away from you and our home.  When I return,_ ~~_we are not going to leave our quarters for a week_ _a month_~~ _I will not be parted from your side again._

_This time apart will be worth it - this time of missing your smile, your laugh, of simply missing you - will all be worth it, if I can have that of you until we are old and grey.  It will be worth it to have a lifetime with you rather than a decade or two.  I want that.  I want a family with you, my love._

_I want a babe with your nose, with your laugh_ ~~_andraste, I love your laugh_ ~~ _~~.~~ I want all the things the wardens said we couldn’t have.  And I want it all with you. _

_I go to find this cure for all of us, for all of our order, so that there is a way out than the deep roads. But I find it mostly for you._

_I have to change the name I’ve been travelling under now that the Inquisition is aware, I will find a way to get that to you when it cannot be intercepted - someone has paid the last of the Crows a good deal to stop what work I am doing.  Zevran has been an invaluable friend - love, he has saved my life again.  It will be just another of the many stories we will have to tell each other when we are together once more._

_Bruno has been good to me, as faithful as he has always been.  If you encounter them, please tell Gavin and Vanna... tell them I miss them too. ~~It is much quieter here without Gavin around.~~   _ _Don’t tell him that_ _.  And I hear Sofia is with you - send my love to her and Anders.  Tell them when things are safe again, that the Vigil will always be a home for them. I have sent word to Nate and Carver, to keep everyone safe for a little longer, and then we will deal with this other threat against us.  We’ll go to Weisshaupt together._

_Alistair, please don’t try to be a hero. I’ve heard what this Inquisition has been doing - it’s good - but Maker, it’s dangerous. You are absolutely forbidden to leave me alone in this world. Just as I will not leave you._

_I love you, I love you, I love you._

_Mira_

* * *

 

He’s lost count of how many times he’s read the words, fell asleep the night before with it still in his hands.  It isn’t long before the Inquisitor finds him, he’s been reading it again as he found a quiet place on the battlements, able to look out on the horizon as the sun had risen, wondering where in Thedas Mira was.  Or if she was even in Thedas anymore.

“Warden Alistair?”

Inquisitor Trevelyan is standing before him, twisting her hands together.  He knew what she wanted to ask, know she felt as if she was prying, but he’d already seen her eyes light up with fascination when she’d first found out he truly was.  He gave her a smile and a nod for her to continue.

“The Hero of Ferelden’s letter said that there was a personal message for someone… I - I wanted to make sure that you received it from our messengers.”

He nodded.  “I got her note.  She might be onto something.  There’s danger, of course, but there’s always danger.” He sighed.  Of course there was danger, knew that she was more than capable on her own, she was a force to be reckoned with.  But if he could be there, be another set of eyes, a sword to watch her back, arms to hold her at night.  “Thank you for getting word. It’s easier to put it out of your mind, to focus on the task at hand… But hearing from her again…” His throat felt tight, his vision threatening to blur. “Maker’s Breath, but I do miss that woman.”

The Inquisitor gave him a sad smile, knew he was trying to hold together as he cleared his throat.

“Well, let’s get on with it. Something you need?”

 


	2. Alistair's Letter

_It’s hard being away from you_ , Alistair writes, quill scratching against the page.  He crosses out the words, find they’re not adequate, nothing he hasn’t said before. He wants to tell her that nights aren’t the same without the cool touch of her beside him - the warmth of his blankets alone has become strange. He wants to tell her that he misses her smile, her laugh, the way she fits against him in the night, always there when either wake from the nightmares that still plague them both.

But it’s nothing he hasn’t said before.  

It’s been a long three years, since the lead that had come to them one night in the form of a raven.  They’d long suspected who it had been from, even if the letter had never been signed.  They’d never seen her writing, couldn’t say for sure, but Mira had been convinced her vanished friend was saving their lives once more.

His attention goes back to the page in front of him now, nothing but crossed out words and blots where he’s held the ink too long in thought.  Perhaps words she’s heard before aren’t so bad.  He tells her all those things, tells her about Skyhold and the Inquisition, about how they’ll be leaving for Adamant Fortress within the week.

He wishes he could see her face again before they go, hold her one more time, he isn’t sure what will happen.  But he knows that’s what he wants more than anything he’s ever asked the Maker for.  He ends the letter with something he’s lost count of how many times he’s told her, but the words never seem worn out.   _I love you, Meer.  Please be safe._

It’s late when he walks from the quarters he’s been given to the rookery.  He isn’t surprised when he finds Leliana there, feeding one of her ravens from her hand.

“A far cry from your nugs, aren’t they?”

She turns and smiles at his words, knowing he was there the moment he began the bottom stair.  “You want to know where she is, don’t you?”

“I know she doesn’t want me knowing, Lel.  I know you’ll keep your promise to her.”

“She knows you’ll go to wherever she is, and she knows we need you here.”

“I know. I understand her reasons.”

She holds out her hand, seeing the parchment at his side, fingers already having frayed the edges of it on his march up the tower.  “I promise you she’ll receive it.”

“I know. I got her note, from before.  Your scouts did well finding her. Them.”

The both stand in silence, the only sounds the caw of the birds.  

“I miss her, too.”  The words are soft, reminiscent of the young Chantry sister he met during the Blight.  “Things are so different now.”

“I know.”

She laughs.  “You keep saying that.”

They hear a creak on the stair, both looking towards the sound. She’s barely changed over the decade they’ve been apart, yellow eyes flicking between them both, a vanished friend no longer. “Well, well, what have we here?”

“Hello, Morrigan.”  He’s been avoiding her and the boy she has with her, doesn’t want to think that something that is his own flesh and blood is across the fortress.  His words are curt and she passes a scowl his way.

“Leliana, could you see this reaches her?”  Morrigan passes her own rolled parchment, the edges neat unlike his own.  The redheaded woman nods and ties it to the same bird as his as he furrows his brows and turns back towards the witch.

“And what exactly are you telling my wife?”  Mira’s told him time and time again to trust her, the Witch of the Wilds has never betrayed them, but even after years he still finds it hard.

“Something that will make her return swifter…to all of us.”  

He finds he can’t argue with that.

They stand and watch when the bird flies off, the past decade melting away for just a moment, he can almost hear the crackling of the fire that had kept them warm on the nights of that year they’d spent together.  It seemed almost a lifetime ago.  When the raven is past the mountains, they drift back to their own beds, back to the lives that separated them, but has brought them together once more.  He wonders if it is some cruel joke from the Maker, risking their lives again for Thedas.  He wonders if it’s more than that.  But most of all, he wonders if his love will be back in time to join them in saving the world again.  They always were stronger all together.


End file.
